CNN
—
“Is everyone okay with your mother?” asked the man on the stretcher, quietly speaking into his mobile phone. His friend couldn’t believe it, he cried.
This follows the rescue of Mustafa Avci, 33, from the rubble of a collapsed building in southern Turkey’s Hatay province, 261 hours after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on February 6. It was a friendly exchange.
On Friday, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca showed a video showing a phone call between Avci and his friends as a strong reminder that survivors could still be found 11 days after the earthquake hit. has been published.
Avci’s rescue took place late Thursday night as the death toll in Turkey and Syria rose to at least 43,885, according to official figures.
In the video, Avci can be seen wearing a neck brace, asking with hopeful eyes: Please let them hear their voices. ”
His friend sobbed back:
Avci then kisses the rescuer’s hand holding the phone and thanks him. “May God be happy with you a thousand times,” he says.
Minister Koca said both Avuchi and a second man, Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, were rescued from under the ruins of a private hospital at about the same time.
Sakiroglu was in the hospital for a medical checkup when the quake struck, his father told CNN affiliate CNN Turk.
The two men were discovered when rescue teams discovered their feet hanging from the pile of rubble after machine operators cleared the surface debris.
The man was taken to a makeshift hospital in Hatay for treatment, the health minister said.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent in southern Turkey, said it was rare for people to survive more than 100 hours trapped in the rubble, with most successful rescues usually occurring within 24 hours. rice field.
“These are amazing stories and people stand up … in situations like this,” he said.
The rescue of the two men followed the rescue of a 13-year-old boy named Mustafa in Antakya, Hatay Province on Wednesday, 228 hours after the quake struck.
Mustafa’s survival was “certainly a miracle”, rescue worker Ozer Aydinli told Gupta in an interview on Thursday.
Aydinli said he thought fellow rescue workers were “hallucinating” and thought the boy was “dead with his eyes open”. I can’t feel my feet. save me!
More than 70 crew members then rushed to help.
“I still cry sometimes,” Aydinli said, referring to the boy’s rescue. “He is very well and conscious. Hopefully he will get better.”
Rescue teams are still trying to access hard-to-reach areas of Turkey and Syria, but the number of people found alive has fallen.
Meanwhile, donations have come in from all over the world, but many survivors lack access to basic necessities and are left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures.
“Many lives have been saved and many have been lifted from the rubble by neighbors, friends, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers. Frontline health workers have done an amazing job in both countries.” said Mike Ryan, director of emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO). briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.
The WHO said it was particularly concerned about people in northwestern Syria, a rebel-controlled area with little access to aid.The UN health agency said it had asked the Syrian president Bashar Assad Opening more border crossings with Turkey to allow aid.
“It’s clear that the area of greatest concern at the moment is northwestern Syria,” Ryan said.
Aid delivery to Syria is limited by restrictions on cross-border mechanisms agreed by the United States. UN Security Council resolution of 2014 Allow aid to pass through four locations on the Turkish-Syrian border.
“The impact of the earthquake in government-controlled areas of Syria is significant, but the services are there and there is access to those people,” Ryan said. I mean, there’s been 10 years of war in Syria.The health system is incredibly weak.People have been through hell.”
